Chapter 11: Selling your soul for art
Dan Woo sat at his familiar dining table in a familiar room with one familiar face and three unfamiliar ones. On the table was an array of Korean dishes, from rice to meat to fish to pickled vegetables prepared in all manner of ways. The scent was mouthwatering, yet his eyes were fixed on a far more bizarre feast.
From the embodiment of the universe clad in human form, to an amalgamation of different concepts, to a body made of abstract shapes so angular he was geometry itself—it was a bizarre family. Yet they all ate as if they were regular humans.
"How are you enjoying the meal, dear?" the woman whose skin was the cosmos asked. Her eyes were moons gazing at him.
Dan Woo slowly took a bite before turning back to the eerily happy face made of moons and stars as the voice continued.
"Eat more, eat more," the woman said, adding meat, kimchi, and all manner of food onto his plate.
Dan Woo only nodded.
Yet his eyes couldn’t help but drift toward the more human member of this family.
He had so many questions, yet his mind was blank. Finally, after cycling through countless words, he settled on one.
"This wasn’t what I meant when I said we should get coffee," he said at last.
"I thought a meal would be better."
"So who are you exactly?" he finally asked. "Your face seems to bounce between two of my supposed wi—ex-wives. Are you Baek Hari or Han Soo Hee, or just a figment of my imagination? Maybe another anomaly playing with my mind? Who are you? You told me you would explain once we finished making the meal."
"Can we eat first? The food is getting cold."
"We can..."
"You two should calm down."
A male voice cut through coming from a figure with the sky for a torso, trees for a neck, stones for hands, water for legs, and fire for eyes.
"Married couples fight all the time. All you need to do is have a meal and talk it through."
He spoke as he extended his chopsticks and placed some food onto his daughter’s plate.
"Daddy, can I have some too?" the block of shapes said in a prepubescent male voice as he extended his own bowl.
The bizarre-looking man put some meat into his bowl as well.
Dan Woo was left in awe at the bizarre situation. The people at the table were acting like an ordinary family, yet they were anything but.
"Daddy, daddy, can we switch on the TV?" the block of shapes asked as his form morphed into a different arrangement of shifting shapes.
The man looked at his wife.
"You have to ask Mommy for that, son."
The man said before going back to his meal.
The son, who was nothing more than a block of shifting shapes, turned to the woman dressed in stars.
"Mommy, could I—"
Before he could finish, she interrupted him.
"You know you have to ask your sister, sweetie. This is her home after all."
The block of shapes turned to Baek Hari.
"Noona, can you—"
"You have to ask your Hyeongnim."
Dan Woo, who had been watching this weird game of hot potato, was suddenly confused when the question was directed at him.
"Hyeongnim," the boy began.
Dan Woo turned to Baek Hari, his face showing tangible confusion and discomfort.
Yet Baek Hari said nothing, only waiting as the boy finally asked the question.
Dan Woo turned back to the boy, intending to deflect it by saying he didn’t know where the TV remote was, so it would be better to ask his sister instead.
Then a flash of memory played through his mind.
The familiar scene unfolded before him. The same family. The same people.
Only this time, they had human faces and human bodies.
His wife was Han Soo Hee, and this was the matrimonial home they had shared together. His in-laws had come for a visit.
Then the image of where he always kept the TV remote surfaced in his mind.
Dan Woo jumped out of his seat, the intrusive memory sending his guard all the way up.
Were the beings before him playing with his mind?
Everyone at the table stopped chewing and looked at him with concern.
"What’s wrong?" one of them asked.
"Are you okay?"
He could see their worry written all over their bodies, yet he felt he was taking all this surprisingly well. The presence of the sudden memory only made him more suspicious. Maybe they were controlling his mind somehow, because how could he be so calm?
He walked over to where the remote should have been and found it exactly where the memory had shown him.
The little kid made of shapes immediately started bouncing around.
"Switch on the TV! Switch on the TV!"
Dan Woo, having had enough, turned to Baek Hari.
"What’s your name?"
"What?"
"I mean, what is your real name?"
"All my names are real. Are you okay?"
"Just answer me. What was your first name?"
Baek Hari hesitated.
"...I’m not sure what you mean by first, but I was called Kim Seo Jin when I was a child."
And there it was.
The moment he heard the name, it felt like everything clicked into place.
The fog clouding his memories of the main character suddenly lifted.
Yet he still wasn’t sure how Kim Seo Jin had turned into Baek Hari.
Kim Seo Jin was supposed to be a college student, an aspiring novelist who would go through the normal protagonist route—developing as an Awakened and protecting the world from anomalous threats.
Yet...
"Why are you doing this?" Dan Woo asked.
"Doing what?"
"I don’t know... this."
He gestured around the room.
"Why are you playing my wife? Why did you invite me here?"
Baek Hari went quiet before slowly walking toward him.
"Switch on the TV."
"What?"
"Switch it on," Baek Hari said, pointing at the remote.
"What’s that going to do?"
Even so, he finally switched the TV on.
An animated film appeared on the screen, prompting the child made of shifting shapes to hurry over. Before he could settle down, however—
"Change the channel," Baek Hari said.
Dan Woo froze.
At some point, Baek Hari now looked like Han Soo Hee.
The sudden change caught him off guard, leaving him only able to mutter,
"Huh?"
"I said change the channel."
Dan Woo did as he was told.
The screen switched to a baseball match, the broadcast focused almost entirely on a specific player who seemed exceptionally talented.
Before he could properly follow the game—
"Change the channel."
He did.
This time it was a soccer match, once again focused on a particular player.
Only now Dan Woo noticed something strange.
The channels had names.
Names that matched the person being shown.
Seeing this, he began changing the channels himself.
The was an Actor.
Then a Singer.
A Writer.
One after another, he watched scenes from different lives unfold across the screen.
Each channel followed a different person.
After scrolling for a while, the TV landed on a familiar name.
Kim Soo Won.
She stood on a stage, performing a piece she had seemingly composed herself.
The sound was captivating.
The skill was masterful.
Even though Dan Woo didn’t understand the technicalities, it was obvious she was very good.
In fact, everyone portrayed on the screen was very good.
Every single one of them seemed to possess an extraordinary level of talent.
Dan Woo turned to Baek Hari.
"What’s this? Why do you have all these people in your TV? What is my sister doing here?"
"I am looking for people."
"Why?"
Baek Hari paused.
"...As of now, you should understand that I am an anomaly, so maybe you can deduce the reason."
"Are you looking for a Champion?"
"A Champion? No. I am looking for anchors."
"Anchors?"
"Yes. And the only way through this is by obtaining Concept Markers."
"So you make deals with humans?"
"Indeed. As an anomaly, there are rules that I have to follow, and selling your soul for art is quite popular with humans."
Dan Woo’s expression tightened.
"My sister! Will my sister be okay?"
"Of course. Why would I hurt humans?"
Baek Hari tilted her head.
"I used to be human... wait, I still am. It’s complicated. Just know that I don’t wish to harm anyone. In fact, quite the opposite. It’s just that, like you, I have an imperative to follow."
"Like me?"
Without warning, Baek Hari materialized something and tossed it toward him.
Dan Woo caught it.
It was a book.
The 23 Enigma.
That was the title.
"You were looking for a writer to help with your imperative, right?" Baek Hari said. "This is my gift to you. Make sure to prepare thoroughly before the war."
Dan Woo was about to ask another question when he suddenly found himself falling through clouds.
His previous home, the strange familiar TV, and everything around him dissolved into nothingness.
He kept falling.
Falling.
Until he awoke once more within the familiar fog and mist.
[Ding]
[Core Concept Detected — Assimilating]
Core Concept?
Before he could finish the thought, he felt something dissolve into liquid and burrow into his body.
It was a weird sensation.
Uncomfortable.
Yet strangely painless.
[Ding]
[Core Concept Under Development — 2%]
Dan Woo stared at the notification.
He wasn’t sure what it meant.
Questions about what the book truly was began cycling through his mind.
Eventually, he gave up trying to understand.
If only he could have known what was written inside it.
The moment the thought crossed his mind, the book appeared before him.
Its pages flipped open on their own.
Lines of text covered the pages.
Yet he couldn’t make sense of any of it.
The symbols seemed familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
He reached out and tried to turn to the next page.
The book immediately snapped shut.
Then it disappeared.
Dan Woo remained standing within the fog.
What was the book?
What was The 23 Enigma?